As President Bush is finishing his first term in office, I would like to point out some of the things I feel make him one of the worst presidents in the history of this country from an environmental standpoint.

Some of the things he has done to our environment include:

Bush’s Interior Department has declared the United States has all the wilderness it needs. That means that the Bureau of Land Management’s unprotected wilderness – quality lands – will no longer be given special status, and could be opened to mining, drilling or logging. Among the areas at risk: 600,000 acres in Colorado, 7 million acres in Utah, 61 million acres in Alaska.

In the guise of fire protection, he has opened over 131 million acres without an environmental review and has opened the door to logging roads in 60 million acres in huge, wild forests. In the Tongass National Forest, the roadless area accounts for 9 million acres.

Critical habitat for endangered species is no longer preserved for that use.

As for a second term, don’t be fooled. It will be more of the same. If re-elected, Bush means to keep going in the same direction. The people he has put in charge are made up of developers, miners, oil people and loggers – the very people who have given large sums of money and stand ready to do the same thing again.

Jack Biscoe, Turner

Copy the Story Link